This article provides an insight into oil spill response equipment to ports and oil exploration
and production companies. The equipment are one kilometer of boom, skimmer, power pack,
tow tank and other accessories to provide response capability to contracted clients.

Oil spill incidents catch the attention of an
ordinary citizen when an incident worthy of
television coverage occurs. However, behind the
public domain, there is a regime of regulatory mechanism,
international conventions, contingency planning,
equipment stockpiling and response preparedness that
is ongoing throughout the year in India, and in every
coastal state or country.

Few characteristic features of this sector that explain
‘why we are, where we are’, are discussed here.

The response equipment is typically booms stowed on
reels, skimmers and tow tanks. They are quite bulky.
They are also usually self-contained for their power
requirements, since they have to be operated in remote
locations and on ‘vessels of opportunities’. The diesel
hydraulic system is a favorite as portable power pack for
turning the boom reel or the skimmer or even operating
a blower to inflate the boom. Equipment in this sector is
predominantly imported, at considerable costs, though
these equipment are not ‘hi-tech’. Design innovation has
been slow in this area around the world. Understandably,
emergency response sector seeks reliability, mobility
and versatility and not ‘automation’ in such equipment.
Recent innovations around the world have been propelled
skimmer units with remote hydraulic drives, to direct the
skimmer towards the oil patch. Bio remediation, while
useful on the beaches, has not been a favorite in tidal or
coastal waters due to the challenges of containing the
floating oil for long periods, until the bio remediation
agent completes its work.

Inventory optimisation by pooling of resources is one
route towards cost optimisation. However, the equipment
for spill response is characteristically bulky and not
easily moved across geographies. Moving a loaded boom
reel weighing up to 3 tons and of typical sizes of 15 cbm,
is not ideal for airfreighting and is not fast enough by
road. This has resulted in this industry model being ‘pool
resources for larger spills’ called Tier 2 and Tier 3, and
retain minimum mandated equipment on-site for Tier
1 spills.

When spill occurs, oil may be pouring out of a pipeline
or a crack or overflowing from a small air pipe and can
be contained within a small area. But beyond half a day
it may have hit kilometers of the coast, or thickened to
an unpumpable viscosity or on the way to becoming a
‘mousse’. This will magnify the scale of the problem,
besides rendering itself unfit to use of dispersants. Once
the oil hits the coast, the response is predominantly
manual and consequently slow. Thus, the time
sensitivity of a spill response mobilisation and adequate
on- site containment equipment inventory can never be
overemphasised.

Oil spill response organisations (OSROs) are mostly
private players, providing requisite equipment and
trained manpower on a timescale ‘service’ model. Being
domain experts, these organisations are in the know of
the latest knowledge in this subject. The OSROs usually
have additional inventory and manpower to scale up the response if required. This service provider model ensures professional maintenance and deployment of
resources, which is extremely vital during an emergency.
As ports move towards ‘landlord’ model, such specialist
service providers will be more in demand from the
port sector.

Being an emergency response mechanism and not
directly contributing to revenue, many organisation
would limit this budget to the extent necessary to manage
the risks and ensure regulatory compliances, similar to
insurance cover. Nothing wrong with that, if the budget is
well spent.

With the scale of oil EnP activity in India, it is viable to
support a Tier 2 or 3 inventory in India, provided the
oil industry seeks and supports such a move. In times
of emergency, a response equipment stockpile within
India will be far easier to mobilise than international
inventory. There is ample scope for Tier 2 stockpile
in oil handling hubs in the country. OSROs signing up
multiple clients within one region, can afford to place
a ‘shared pool of resources’ in addition to meeting the
mandated inventory of each facility. It must be reiterated
that revenue model of an OSRO is from the monthly or
annual retainers and fees charged to the client. There
will be few OSROs if any, who will set up inventory and
await its cash flows only from response to stray incidents
from uncontracted clients.

AlphaMERS has filed for patent for a special boom
designed in house that can be produced in large quantities
in short timeframes from available off-the-shelf raw
material. The company is an OSRO providing response
capability to two oil companies. The company is active
in oil spill response, marine EIA and offshore renewable
energy sector. The company seeks to progressively set up
tier 2 and Tier 3 inventory in India, subject to support
from industry players.